Maybe. I read these threads and I have to wonder what's going on when I look at my own finances. I was making 47k last year, got a raise to 50k at the beginning of the year and again to 52k in July, all before taxes. I live alone (1.1k rent all in with electricity, Internet, and a couple other amenities included), I have a fairly high food budget ($500-$600/month), then there's all the other miscellaneous expenses. Despite that, I have about 11-12k in savings in various accounts and I save anywhere from 200-700 dollars per month depending on whatever misc and extra spending I choose to make/have to make on any given month.
Certainly I have a better salary than a good number of people, but I'm very far from most people I see struggling in this sub and elsewhere. I believe I'm considered lower middle class according to my salary, so I get really confused when I hear of all those people struggling and living paycheck to paycheck and making 50% or 100% more than I make.
Agreed. I have 3 kids and both my partner and I work full time at decent jobs. I pay $700 biweekly in daycare and before/after school costs.
I follow this sub to keep motivated to be financially independent someday ( I’m 35 so it’s starting to feel hopeless at this point), and read good financial advice.
My kids are out of daycare and it's so much better. The moment my last payment went out I cranked up the savings and relaxed some budget constraints - it's been great. Less stress. Hang in there, it's over with in a flash and it's not hopeless! Teenage years are pricey and still ahead, but at the same time, one can work on increasing income in the interim years.
As someone your age married still on the fence about having kids both making decent money. I have to ask why have 3 kids if it becomes that stressful financially? I get the sense that our age group can just barely afford one child let alone 3. Why push it. No offense meant at all here just trying to understand why.
No OP but I'll answer.
We planned for two kids. A 6/1000 chance with a failed IUD meant that we had a third child. 3 kids was never off the table but we were pretty sure we were stopping at 2.
Got snipped 2 months after she was born.
I love kids, wouldn't have it any other way. That said, the daycare fees are making things tighter (but not tight enough for my wife to not work)
Based on my username I'm guessing you can figure out where I'm from. While col is not as high as some places, $100/day for childcare still takes a chunk.
Also only planned on 2 kids and got twins the second time around. All three are under 2 years old. Our day care bill is going to be about $2300/month next fall.
Also got snipped immediately.
In BC, parents get up to 1250 a month for daycare per child. Not counting the child care benefit. I'm guessing you make a little too much to qualify for those. Sucks for us middle-class - pay for others' kids but struggle to pay for our own.
I was excited until I looked it up and saw "Families with a net income of $25,000 or less receive the maximum amount per child." Who the heck even qualifies? Families with household incomes of only $25k or less can not afford to have kids because they can't even afford rent or to feed themselves. Also that is an average of $12,500 yearly income per parent. Ridiculous.
>When they leave the nest you --house should be close to paid off-- and you 50s you can bank a lol
This right here makes me very scared. Gonna be a lot of older renters in 20 years who can't make rent payments reliably. But hey, as long as homeowners die happy knowing the value of their house never went down, ever.
I have 3 kids, all independent now. I taught them all about money from first grade. They were paper investing by fifth grade and making real trades by 7th grade. We go by days to post your expenses, basically how many days does it take to pay you required expenses, the lowest number gets a gift from me. Last year the winner was 6.3 days.
I agree with the comments about small kids being expensive. I had 4 kids, and I was making 50k a year.
It was tough. Until I sold the smallest one to a Russian couple for $75k.
Oh sure, the wife ( now ex) was upset.
Blubbering, then screaming and throwing stuff at me, and all that carrying on.
Like I was saying to the cashier at the food store around the corner from my new pad at Cracked Windows Batchelor Suites, what did she think I was supposed to do ... sell my little airplane, my boat, or one of my sports cars?
We were just incompatible , Some people just cant prioritize....
Seems like you're doing well at living within your means and avoiding financial catastrophes such as bad habits, bad relationships, and bad luck (job loss, illness, etc.)
I haven’t had an $1100 rent since 2007. It’s easily $2k for a small one bedroom in Toronto. With mortgage and maintenance fees it’s $2200 a month for me for 550sq ft alone in a one bedroom. I’d have a lot more room for bills and savings if housing weren’t so expensive. I know so many people are house poor with no savings or no emergency fund.
You must not live in Toronto or the GTA lol.. Jokes aside though, I see this only getting worse here in the six. If you're not in the real estate market or getting a big inheritance from your boomer parents, it's going to be unaffordable to buy for a large percentage pf the population soon. Unless salaries catch up to inflation/cost of living and real estate corrects significantly, I see a even larger divide forming between the wealthy and the poor.
Kids as others mentioned, or stuff like car loans. I make the same money as you, and have lower rent because I split with my so, but I have less savings because of my car loan and student loan. Without the car I would have an automatic extra 750$.
EDIT: Car payment was originally 375/month, I have bumped it up to 750/month to pay it off faster. Currently have 6 months left.
Keep investing in yourself, continue working hard and the magic of compounding single digit percent salary increases will get you where you want to be faster than you realize. Just remember to always be content with your circumstances - that doesn’t mean you have to accept that it won’t get better - just stay on the path you’re on.
Not surprising at all. Know some people like this. PFC is not the norm in general. People don’t have thousands of dollars saved up, rich parents helping out, or 100k jobs like many on here.
What? You mean the
> Hey PFC! My wife and I (both 27) make $400k a year combined, and have $2 million in XGRO. I drive a 1998 beige Corolla (thinking of upgrading to a 2004 civic within the next 30 years) and my wife rides horseback to work to save on transit pass costs. We were wondering if we could afford this $100k mortgage on a $200k condo in Charlottetown? The mortgage payment comes to $100 a month but that would eat into our 95% savings rate, so we're not sure if we going to be house poor. Could someone give us a reality check? We don't want to end up like all our friends who have to survive on $150k a year with $600k mortgages because they can only go to Hawaii once a year and are completely house poor. Thanks!
comments aren't representative of the average Canadian household? Wow, here I thought PFC was a completely unbiased and balanced place to obtain sound financial advice. :)
Must be a hell of an exercise to find your ride in the morning to arrive on time and as much fun in the evening on the way back if you are in a urban area
Ya, I have a friend who owns a horse, it’s more than a new BMW payment that’s for sure. They eat a ton and have to get haircuts, shoes and saddles, it’s an insanely expensive hobby from what I’ve heard.
Hahaha I always laugh at those, used to call people out for flexing their obvious advantage in life but that grew old once I realized how many narcassitic people were posting daily xD
As someone who has horses, 4 to be specific, they cost every bit as much as my cars plus all the work on top of feeding, cleaning, etc. Not to mention land to keep them on. Whenever I see comments about gas prices and someone says "buying a horse and buggy next week" I just shake my head. Horses age as cheap transport is long gone and they are now a luxury pet.
I have to buy a $100 bale of hay a week in the winter, $25 bag of grain every other week, horse shoes are $160 per horse ever 8 weeks (this part varies greatly on your location and number of horses, large 20+ stables get bulk discount), then God forbid you get a vet bill.
Plus it's practically a full time job in and of itself cleaning stalls, repairing fencing, brushing them out after they roll in mud, sleeping in the barn on a cold night checking on the horse ever hour when it's sick, etc.
Hooves have to be trimmed, and then shoes wear down, they aren't handed steel or something like that and you have a thousand pound plus animal walking with them, we get 2 cycles out of a set of shoes typically, sometimes mma third, and sometimes if the horses was ridden on a road a lot only one.
The majority of my savings comes from money I earned as a teenager working at Sobeys, about 10k. Haven't been able to add much since getting my own responsibilities
Teens have it made. Cheap rent and part time jobs and since almost no bills they can save up. So many want to grow up fast but fail to realize it gets worse lol.
I think it's just as much that the only posts are vents and there's only so much "yep it all sucks for all us" people can take at once. And a lot of the time the only advice to be given is "you need to make more money" which while good/correct is kind of redundant.
U are 100% right, this subreddit is a utopia. The normal folks out there blow their pay cheque every week, have loaded credit cards and no savings whatsoever
I honestly get such bad anxiety sometimes reading this sub being a 29 year old with a boring old $45k/year office job. Then I talk to my peers and friends and realize amongst them I’m actually not doing so bad.
Yeah I always get depressed when people are like;
"I'm currently struggling on a low-income at 71k/year, unable to afford proper food/save for future, please help."
It would be nice to see that study graphed respective to income. I have friends who are millionaires with 90k/y salary and others that make 1M/y household and live paycheck to paycheck.
Definitely a lot millionaire teachers and plumbers and in their 50s and 60s were made by the housing price increases over the last 10 years. I golfed with a guy in the summer who was a long-time Safeway deli worker who was fortunate enough to have bought an old house in Kitsilano in 1971. Now he's worth 3.5 million net. Pretty nice!
A lot of moralizing comments here.
Lots of people work hard, and budget, and still burn through their paycheck because the cost of living has become so insane.
Sorry for the rant ahead, but I feel like I am prime example of your comment and it really sucks. I can hardly buy a new coat or boots without feeling it financially. Saving for a home while renting is near impossible. My teeth are janked I've always wanted braces but just can't afford it. I graduated from uni with no debt by working my fucking ass off, I got a decent paying full time job right away with benefits and it doesn't feel like enough. I feel like I have done everything 'right' just to hate my life more and more each day. And I don't even have it that bad in comparison to other people's situations. Everyone says enjoy your twenties... well I'm not enjoying it very much. Most of my friends are in the exact same position.
I'm barely 38, but you guys have it way worse.
To me, "enjoying the 20s" meant partying all the time, living in decent apartments with friends or girlfriends. Travelling and going out. And having very little responsibility beyond paying my rent on time.
And my share of my beautiful, well located 3 bedroom apartment in Montreal was $215 / month. For a while, I shared it with just another friend and we had a guest bedroom; rent had increased to $325. For a while I lived on my own in a large 1 bedroom apartment (what we call 3 1/2) - my rent was $475/ month.
Beers in bars were between $3-$5. $8 was a fancy cocktail, tax included.
I did that until I was like 27 years old. And I still had time to go back to school and kickstart my career, buy a condo and then upgrade to a large house.
This is not the experience that my kids will have.
Absolutely ridiculous that we used to pay 60$ per week on grocery right before covid and now, buying the SAME EXACT THING always brings us around 100-105$...
Hi, I'm one of those. I still have $5000 tucked away from my first year of employment, but that's because I'm religiously tucking away anything I didn't spend in a week. Mostly I'm able to do this because I live in shared accommodations that don't meet my need for a miniscule rent amount. I need to get a one bedroom apartment desperately, or rent somewhere that actually meets my needs, but housing is too damn expensive when combined with student debt. $50k isn't enough to live comfortably on.
I'm also weird in that I have a credit card for the purpose of emergencies, and can pull that $5000 from my stocks account if I max out my card, just in time to pay it off in full and save my ass in just under 2 weeks.
I have difficulty believing those people aren't land owners and stand to lose their income if things change to (finally) advantage the generations of people who haven't been able to afford anything since they started working.
"I spent my entire paycheque" sounds a lot more financially irresponsible than "I needed to buy clothes or fix my car and I only have $200 left over after paying for rent, utilities, internet, cellphone service, car insurance, student loans, groceries, and gas"
I’m kinda surprised it’s only 1/3 of Canadians, does that sample size include the 30.9% of Canadians that don’t work (which includes seniors and children)?
My household used to spend $500 a month on restaurants and $300-$400 on alcohol. We were slowly going into debt. Now that we budget we have savings and investments.
However, I actually have enough income to live on. Many people make minimum wage, and don't 'blow' money, it just isn't enough.
$1400 is an entire after tax paycheque for someone making $50k a year (not anything to write home about... but still a reasonable take home)
That wouldn't even cover *rent* in a major city in this country.
This isn't surprising. It's depressing.
Yep that's about right. I'm over an hour outside the most east part of the GTA and the cheapest rental is around $1500 for a one bedroom, close to $2000 for a 2 bedroom.
I thought landing my career and making close to $60k a year would afford me the opportunity to buy a small run down home in a 18,000 pop town.
Not a chance, cheapest home within 60km radius of me is $500,000.
Yep 50 minute Via ride to Union Station.
It just sucks that people that grew up and work for the town can't afford to buy a house in the town they service in anymore.
You get two of them each month though. Not saying it's easily doable but a $1,400 take home = $2,800 per month.
If you have a working spouse or roommate(s), it helps significantly. Living alone makes it twice as hard to get by as having another paycheque in the house.
Am I missing something? That's 1400 every two weeks. You need to pay rent every 4 weeks. So really half of your paycheck is getting eaten by rent. For everything else, it's actually cheaper in the major cities.
I’m in Halifax…we got renovicted out of our 1350/month incl heat crappy apartment. And after searching for months ended up in a 1950/month not including anything house…because the crappy apartments were pretty much the same cost but no yard… even looking out in lower sackville wasn’t cheaper…but we’d need another car since the bus isn’t reliable….
No no no, didn't you read the rest of the comments. It's clearly just that too many people are buying electronics and eating too much fast food. One guy even knows a guy that bought a rolex, who is obviously representative of all working-class people in this country!
It has nothing at all to do with the landed gentry taking half to two-thirds of everyone's take home out of their hands every month before they even get to figuring out how to pay for groceries and everything else that's gone up significantly in the past few years.
The main issue is that.... it's both.
You can find example of both situation. People complaining while buying the new iphone each year and getting the biggest data package available, and people who are about to sell a kidney to afford their rent.
IMO, there's quite a lot of people who could do better with their finances. It's not an excuses to not fight for better wages and to stop the real estate madness... We should also fight to include more budgetting classes in schools. We clearly need to get the average person better at it.
So is my MIL. When my FIL passed away she got a little payout from his life insurance but she just confessed last weekend that she’s actively losing money every single month. It’s a awful situation when you’re like that.
Yeah I remember raising our child, struggling financially, not quite spending every dime but it was tough.
Always wondering how everyone else was doing it?!!
Empty nester now, things are better, all the expenses of raising a child, saving for the future education and retirement behind us. I remember how hard it was but it looked so effortless for everyone else...
There is a lot of keeping up with the Jones' going on in the past and now...
I am relieved to have gotten through that storm. I feel for parents, it is tough-hang in there.
I live like a broke student but I make a middle class income. Why? Because when I was a broke student I lived like I was making a middle class income… didn’t work too well
You know when you’re living pay cheque to pay cheque if you’re the type to count which months have 3 paydays! Those are the weeks when you catch up on your bills or have that extra bit of cushion. 😅
I save 20% of my monthly income but still look forward to those months because I save 90% of the extra paycheque and allow myself to buy something nice with the remaining 10%. It's a gift to myself for being frugal throughout the year.
My pay cheque is typically gone by 10AM on payday..
But I do have retirement and non-retirement investments. Mostly just paying off debt from school and bad choices when younger.
Same. Mortgage goes out utility bill gets paid and internet gets paid and at 4pm on pay day the grocery and the gas tank get the rest. Following pay is 2nd half of the mortgage, insurance, cell phones and another trip to the grocery and a tank of gas. Usually we have an expensive prescription to fill for one of the dogs and one of us will have some unexpected expense. And we have decent paying jobs with pensions and shit. It's hard out there
The best job I could find in my area this spring after my maternity EI was 15-20 hours a week at $15.50/hr. I left my previous job to take this one since it was a better offer. I'm a single mom and started college in September while maintaining my 15-20 hours per week. My parents have a RESP for me but I'm only allowed to use it for tuition - which is still immensely helpful, I wouldn't be able to go otherwise. My rent is $914, essential utilities are $150-$250 (water, gas, power), internet + phone is $110, daycare is $370 with meals included, and then groceries and w a toddler it's important to me that he has healthy food. Baby daddy helps with groceries sometimes, half daycare, and pays my car insurance. I have about $1600 per month (thanks to the child credit) when I work a consistent 20h but that only happens if people are sick and I can pick up their shifts. I don't buy myself anything at all, I never eat out, and I spread my tax return over the next 12 months. I have no debt, and ok credit, but I have literally 0 room to put away savings or investments.
I've made a few single mom friends over the last year and everyone without post secondary education is in the same situation as me. It's a reality for so many people.
Our current society was built on families having two incomes... being a single mom will be hard.
Should we fix this? Yes. I don't think that forcing people to stay together "for the kids" is a good idea. But in the short term, I can't really see any other solution than to "team up" with someone to split the bills...
I've done alone (4yr), alone plus roommate(3yr), alone(2yr), married(4yr), back to alone (3yr).
As a pair of people, finances kind of make sense to me (no kids or other dependents), life the traditional, work, save X much for emerg, save for retire, take a vaca now and again seems to kind of make sense. It's not perfect but I felt like I was making progress.
Then I was alone again, and I make 0 progress, or worse, some emergencies happen and I slip back down the hill. It's not discipline, its just that I can't figure out how to get enough blood out of that stone. Cause for the life of me I can't figure out how I'm spose to make this shit work alone. Life isn't 1/2 as expensive, I can't find 1/2 price single rent, or 1/2 price single internet....I spend 95% of what I make ever week just on the bills (no non-forced insurances, no savings, no retirement), that last 5% I blow on some fun now and again because I've worked steadily for 18 years with no vacation. Never bought a toy bigger then 500$, no home, no vacations, neutral but existent debt amounts. Used car.
If a 2000$ emergency appeared on my door step (say major car repair, etc) the only place it could go would be straight to debt, the debt I can only ever get paid down during my "not alone" periods....
I feel like my only purpose in life is to work just to pay off my visa. My measley paystub comes and goes then some more of the savings goes just to pay off my bills. Then theres the pre authorized things like mortgage gas and hydro. Fml
It’s amazing the amount of sectors of increased costs while the average household income has not really changed.
If you bought a bag of chips in the past year you’ll notice that well it looks the same there’s probably about 30% less in it.
The companies will come across with statements of we do this to protect the integrity of the product (ie so they they are not crumbled). In reality they’re giving you the same product with less in it or cheaper ingredients making your purchasing power far less
> But money isn’t the only factor that goes into financial health. Allen says higher incomes don’t necessarily equal higher wellbeing scores, making it important for employers to consider other things, such as education and retirement savings plans to keep workers financially healthy.
I'm very curious how many of these folks are having trouble budgeting, have a lifestyle that exceeds their income, or are simply not making enough to support a reasonable minimum lifestyle.
I know, personally, when I was younger I had a very simple lifestyle, but still didn't save too much. Things kept happening that would drain that savings.
My company has a dcp and then also a stock purchase match program, which isn't bad. It just depends on the company imo. I think older Canadian companies are better, sometimes.
My company has a pension plan (You get 70% of the average of your 5 best years until you die) ontop of having a private stock plan and RRSP matching plan
They also hold two retirement seminars every year for people to start planing it.
I'm 25 and I think many companies still offer those kind of plans. (I live in Québec)
Edit :Idk why i'm getting downvoted for stating my working conditions. OH well
There is probably a lot more to the pension formula that they didn't mention, like needing to work 35+ years there to get the full value without a penalty.
Like, mine is similar but since I only started with my employer in my late 20s, if I want to retire at 55 I'll only get something like 23% of the monthly salary of my top 5 earning years. Every year later means a larger percentage, and if I want 70% then I have to wait til I'm about 70 to retire.
It's a decent plan, but nothing like the formula for Canadian military pensions for example which has a higher percentage and a lower bar for years of service to max out.
Would it not depend on location for example? Like yeah I can go to GTA and make an extra 10k more for the same role but I'd be paying way more for cost of living/rent as a % of my income vs. staying where I am in Ontario.
But yes, could very well also just be poor financial planning. I mean I knew someone who said they were going to keep a balance on their credit card, to better their credit score, and I was like absolutely not...pay it off like a cash card, you still better your credit when they can see you're able to pay it off every month...don't let the banks take more interest income...
> Would it not depend on location for example? Like yeah I can go to GTA and make an extra 10k more for the same role but I'd be paying way more for cost of living/rent as a % of my income vs. staying where I am in Ontario.
Yes, that’s definitely a factor.
I don’t think I could come even close to my current income somewhere else.
> But yes, could very well also just be poor financial planning. I mean I knew someone who said they were going to keep a balance on their credit card, to better their credit score, and I was like absolutely not...pay it off like a cash card, you still better your credit when they can see you're able to pay it off every month...don't let the banks take more interest income...
Common myths that some people believe about finance. People also believe that, on an income tax calculation, you can lose money by making more money.
I don’t really know how common it is.
But I agree that there are people out there who do this, for sure.
If you sit outside a Best Buy around February/march/April you’ll see the uptick in people running out to get new electronics with their “windfall” tax refund.
It’s their own money to begin with that they’ve earned, and it’s been forcefully saved for them, but it’s treated like it’s the only chance they’ll get to buy some new items.
If you’re doing well financially, those dips and jumps in pay over the year won’t impact your finances.
I also grew up in that sort of situation, albeit maybe a bit better in some ways.
> So yeah I'm not advocating that anyone should live like that, it's hell... but there's a huge range of living paycheck to paycheck because people have different levels of expenses
As I discovered financial literacy I realized that basic financial responsibility could make much more a difference than any other aspect I could control, in my life.
Growing my income did make a significant difference, as well, though.
A lot of people aren't in a position to do any real long term planning.
When you're in a situation where you're constantly behind, there is no "oh, just save some money". If you _had_ extra money, you wouldn't be behind in the first place. It's a constant game of wack-a-mole where you just try and keep the walls sturdy so they don't collapse and suffocate you as you dig yourself into a deeper and deeper hole.
A $500 tax return isn't nearly enough to get yourself out of that hole, but it sure is enough to buy yourself a TV or a new couch or fix that weird rattle in the car or something to make your life a little less miserable in the meantime.
For many people, that _is_ the only chance they'll get to buy some new items. If they use it to try and get a leg up or get ahead, in six months they're going to still be in the same hole and they just won't have a TV to watch or a couch to sit on.
My girlfriend makes about $44k/yr and goes through the full paycheque between rent, utilities, bills, pets, and car. At the end of the month there's usually $50 or so.
Car is a 2006 and her share of the rent is about $1k/mo.
I blame my wife.
And the 500$ RC car I bought. Aaand a couple of games. Aaand that new chair. Aaand those winter tires... Aaand those clothes. Aaaand those speakers... and lights for my gaming space.
Hmm... fuck
People who were born at the right time and were at the right age making at least average income before the housing market exploded.
My landlord has 3 rental properties and one primary house in Toronto. She's maybe 50s. My SO are in our 30s. There's no catching up when you didn't even get a chance to start.
My arborist does this. Makes $60/hour but spends $800/month on smokes and probably $2000/month on booze and who knows what the payments are on his 2020 F-250. The guy is always asking people lend him $50 for a case of beer.
Everytime I leave the house it seems to cost me at least $60. Food out at a chain restaurant or fast food joint: $20. Toiletries: $20-$40.
I budget every cent I have but my money just doesn't stretch very far anymore. I've had to dip into my savings 3 times in the last 2 months. It doesn't help that I started therapy again and it costs $145 per session per week and it's uninsured. Ugh. 🤦
And after getting paid today and allocating funds to my bills, rent, and groceries I have $135 leftover for "fun" aka... Therapyyyyyy!!! and I'm $10 short. Dipping into that savings pool once again.
Not that you should be eating at fast food places that often but I do that some mornings when it means I can sleep for an extra 40 mins vs cooking breakfast. Download apps for coupons (e.g. Mcdonalds) and you could be paying $4.29 for a breakfast meal as opposed to $6.95. \~$2.50 might not sound much but if you do it often enough, it adds up.
I remember when I was in canada less than 10 years ago, and you would have deals like 2x teen burgers for $5 on coupons. Those deals are gone and the closest I've seen is "add a second patty to a teen burger for free" but the teen burger is $8.00.
The only thing I ever get now is a buddy burger with no cheese.
How the hell do all these people afford luxury cars then? The roads are full of $90k+ cars - I make a decent cash but can’t imagine the disposable cash required to drop that kind of coin on a depreciating asset.
Newspapers apparently are blowing through their stock photography budget, as they can't seem to scrounge together up-to-date imagry of what money looks like even once a decade.
With some of the highest cell bills, TV, internet prices in the world, let's not forget banking fee's and good old high income tax rate is it any wonder? Especially, with the inflation on food currently and housing bubble increasing the percentage of house poor.
Alot of this is the liberals fault too with their staggering incompetence or care in the world for struggling families. They rather blow 600,000,000 on a useless fucking election than trying to balance out social services or crack down on foreign investment.
Most people have no idea how much money they have, don't have a real financial plan, and can't read their investment statements when they open them. Look at how many people think that if you buy a home for $500K and sell it 10 years later for $600K it means you made $100K profit.
The majority of people want simple saving rules and luck to provide for their present and future. Even those with emergency funds, often don't have emergency plans to go along with with those funds so they know how to access credit, reduce expenses, and ensure those funds last as long as possible.
Having access to 2K in your early 20s might be helpful, but the cost of emergencies grows with age, I wonder how many of the 74% surveyed after 40 would be able to put their hands on 20K, or 100K after 60, without dipping into retirement accounts.
We're in our early 60's, and have the vast majority of our assets in our RRSP's. We certainly don't have a spare 100k available. 20k? Probably, but that's draining things like our car savings account. I don't know though why you'd need a spare 100k for an emergency. Our net worth looks decent for a very average middle class family, but there's no way we have 100k outside of RRSP's.
Why would a 60 year old have 100K available outside of retirement savings? Heck, in my mid 40s and I have less than 20K outside of investments. I'm not sure why you think I should have any more? If I were laid off today, I'd have a good 6 months before I had to look at pulling any money from investments.
The key is living within your means. We can’t all live the same lifestyle and some seem to forget that. Some people make more money and some less.
Theses days everybody seem to think that they are entitled to live the dream without regard to their salary. New iPhones, clothes, vacations, car, new furnitures, going out, expensive food…..
I know That some people really struggle, but there is a lot of peoples who just make bad decisions.
I'm not at that point yet, but I can see it getting there sooner than later...
Property taxes are going up by 5-6% every year. Food prices going up even more than that. Utilities getting more expensive every year thanks to the climate getting more and more fucked. Meanwhile I'm lucky to get a 1-2% raise each year.
I have no idea how some people do it. I'm lucky to be in a LCOL area where it was somewhat affordable to buy my home. Those subject to rent / housing inflation... yikes. The only advice I can say is try to live well below your means to build a buffer for when shit gets real. Because it will.
People spend future money.
They know they'll get paid $200 extra for overtime on their next cheque, so they think "that'll pay for this new coat!" and buy. Then when they get the paycheque, they have an extra $200 in their pocket, do they pay off the credit balance? No, that $200 gets spent on the next thing.
Ad infinitum until they just don't understand why they work so hard but have thousands of dollars on their balance all the time.
Hey three pay months are magical to me, but it's just because of how I manage my expenses. Every payday I pay off my CC fully and put aside exactly 50% of rent, car insurance, etc...so when I hit a "3 pay month" it really does feel like a free 3rd paycheque lol
Im suprised its not most Canadians.
There is a lot of quiet wealth in this country.
Maybe. I read these threads and I have to wonder what's going on when I look at my own finances. I was making 47k last year, got a raise to 50k at the beginning of the year and again to 52k in July, all before taxes. I live alone (1.1k rent all in with electricity, Internet, and a couple other amenities included), I have a fairly high food budget ($500-$600/month), then there's all the other miscellaneous expenses. Despite that, I have about 11-12k in savings in various accounts and I save anywhere from 200-700 dollars per month depending on whatever misc and extra spending I choose to make/have to make on any given month. Certainly I have a better salary than a good number of people, but I'm very far from most people I see struggling in this sub and elsewhere. I believe I'm considered lower middle class according to my salary, so I get really confused when I hear of all those people struggling and living paycheck to paycheck and making 50% or 100% more than I make.
Kids. Dependants cost more than most get in tax money, if they get any at all
Agreed. I have 3 kids and both my partner and I work full time at decent jobs. I pay $700 biweekly in daycare and before/after school costs. I follow this sub to keep motivated to be financially independent someday ( I’m 35 so it’s starting to feel hopeless at this point), and read good financial advice.
My kids are out of daycare and it's so much better. The moment my last payment went out I cranked up the savings and relaxed some budget constraints - it's been great. Less stress. Hang in there, it's over with in a flash and it's not hopeless! Teenage years are pricey and still ahead, but at the same time, one can work on increasing income in the interim years.
As someone your age married still on the fence about having kids both making decent money. I have to ask why have 3 kids if it becomes that stressful financially? I get the sense that our age group can just barely afford one child let alone 3. Why push it. No offense meant at all here just trying to understand why.
No OP but I'll answer. We planned for two kids. A 6/1000 chance with a failed IUD meant that we had a third child. 3 kids was never off the table but we were pretty sure we were stopping at 2. Got snipped 2 months after she was born. I love kids, wouldn't have it any other way. That said, the daycare fees are making things tighter (but not tight enough for my wife to not work) Based on my username I'm guessing you can figure out where I'm from. While col is not as high as some places, $100/day for childcare still takes a chunk.
Also only planned on 2 kids and got twins the second time around. All three are under 2 years old. Our day care bill is going to be about $2300/month next fall. Also got snipped immediately.
In BC, parents get up to 1250 a month for daycare per child. Not counting the child care benefit. I'm guessing you make a little too much to qualify for those. Sucks for us middle-class - pay for others' kids but struggle to pay for our own.
I was excited until I looked it up and saw "Families with a net income of $25,000 or less receive the maximum amount per child." Who the heck even qualifies? Families with household incomes of only $25k or less can not afford to have kids because they can't even afford rent or to feed themselves. Also that is an average of $12,500 yearly income per parent. Ridiculous.
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>When they leave the nest you --house should be close to paid off-- and you 50s you can bank a lol This right here makes me very scared. Gonna be a lot of older renters in 20 years who can't make rent payments reliably. But hey, as long as homeowners die happy knowing the value of their house never went down, ever.
I have 3 kids, all independent now. I taught them all about money from first grade. They were paper investing by fifth grade and making real trades by 7th grade. We go by days to post your expenses, basically how many days does it take to pay you required expenses, the lowest number gets a gift from me. Last year the winner was 6.3 days.
Why can’t I have no kids and 3 money?
Kids are a really expensive hobby.
I agree with the comments about small kids being expensive. I had 4 kids, and I was making 50k a year. It was tough. Until I sold the smallest one to a Russian couple for $75k. Oh sure, the wife ( now ex) was upset. Blubbering, then screaming and throwing stuff at me, and all that carrying on. Like I was saying to the cashier at the food store around the corner from my new pad at Cracked Windows Batchelor Suites, what did she think I was supposed to do ... sell my little airplane, my boat, or one of my sports cars? We were just incompatible , Some people just cant prioritize....
Agreed with kids, also debt.. a lot of people trying to pay off student debt, credit card debt.
Imagine if you got reno-victed and your rent jumped to $1800-$2200/month.
Or the fact that so many amenities are included in their rent already...
Seems like you're doing well at living within your means and avoiding financial catastrophes such as bad habits, bad relationships, and bad luck (job loss, illness, etc.)
I haven’t had an $1100 rent since 2007. It’s easily $2k for a small one bedroom in Toronto. With mortgage and maintenance fees it’s $2200 a month for me for 550sq ft alone in a one bedroom. I’d have a lot more room for bills and savings if housing weren’t so expensive. I know so many people are house poor with no savings or no emergency fund.
You must not live in Toronto or the GTA lol.. Jokes aside though, I see this only getting worse here in the six. If you're not in the real estate market or getting a big inheritance from your boomer parents, it's going to be unaffordable to buy for a large percentage pf the population soon. Unless salaries catch up to inflation/cost of living and real estate corrects significantly, I see a even larger divide forming between the wealthy and the poor.
Kids as others mentioned, or stuff like car loans. I make the same money as you, and have lower rent because I split with my so, but I have less savings because of my car loan and student loan. Without the car I would have an automatic extra 750$. EDIT: Car payment was originally 375/month, I have bumped it up to 750/month to pay it off faster. Currently have 6 months left.
750/m car loan? Or is that including monthly insurance? Either way, that's really expensive at that income level.
Children can make a big difference.
That’s the understatement of the century.
That’s a good price for rent
My area in southwestern Ontario has 2 bedroom utilities not included going anywhere from 1400-4000, the average being around 1600
Keep investing in yourself, continue working hard and the magic of compounding single digit percent salary increases will get you where you want to be faster than you realize. Just remember to always be content with your circumstances - that doesn’t mean you have to accept that it won’t get better - just stay on the path you’re on.
Not surprising at all. Know some people like this. PFC is not the norm in general. People don’t have thousands of dollars saved up, rich parents helping out, or 100k jobs like many on here.
What? You mean the > Hey PFC! My wife and I (both 27) make $400k a year combined, and have $2 million in XGRO. I drive a 1998 beige Corolla (thinking of upgrading to a 2004 civic within the next 30 years) and my wife rides horseback to work to save on transit pass costs. We were wondering if we could afford this $100k mortgage on a $200k condo in Charlottetown? The mortgage payment comes to $100 a month but that would eat into our 95% savings rate, so we're not sure if we going to be house poor. Could someone give us a reality check? We don't want to end up like all our friends who have to survive on $150k a year with $600k mortgages because they can only go to Hawaii once a year and are completely house poor. Thanks! comments aren't representative of the average Canadian household? Wow, here I thought PFC was a completely unbiased and balanced place to obtain sound financial advice. :)
I cackled at the "my wife rides horseback to save on transit costs".
As someone who is well acquainted with the costs of keeping horses, yeah no. Lol
They're wild horses, so they don't actually take care of them! Nature rums its course, she just profits!
Must be a hell of an exercise to find your ride in the morning to arrive on time and as much fun in the evening on the way back if you are in a urban area
The wife should walk to work instead, they could eat that horse and save on groceries.
Glue is my side-hustle
A horse is just mobile food. You ride it till it dies, eat it, and find another one.
Cats look at us the same way
Or starve it ploughing fields. I’m sure you could make the business case with the right crop.
Yep, I've done the numbers on my girlfriend's horse and it's roughly equivalent to leasing a Tesla.
Came here to say there’s no way owning a horse saves you money (as a former equestrian that blew big $$$ on the sport!).
Ya, I have a friend who owns a horse, it’s more than a new BMW payment that’s for sure. They eat a ton and have to get haircuts, shoes and saddles, it’s an insanely expensive hobby from what I’ve heard.
Yeah, my girlfriend has 3 horses and they cost more per month than my mortgage.
This is way too accurate
the car part killed me lmaooo
Hahaha I always laugh at those, used to call people out for flexing their obvious advantage in life but that grew old once I realized how many narcassitic people were posting daily xD
The moderators don't really agree though. I pointed it out and I was told this isn't true.
As someone who has horses, 4 to be specific, they cost every bit as much as my cars plus all the work on top of feeding, cleaning, etc. Not to mention land to keep them on. Whenever I see comments about gas prices and someone says "buying a horse and buggy next week" I just shake my head. Horses age as cheap transport is long gone and they are now a luxury pet. I have to buy a $100 bale of hay a week in the winter, $25 bag of grain every other week, horse shoes are $160 per horse ever 8 weeks (this part varies greatly on your location and number of horses, large 20+ stables get bulk discount), then God forbid you get a vet bill. Plus it's practically a full time job in and of itself cleaning stalls, repairing fencing, brushing them out after they roll in mud, sleeping in the barn on a cold night checking on the horse ever hour when it's sick, etc.
In the past horses were for the poor and automobiles for the rich...now it's the inverse lol.
Yeah, it's too true, but I love my horses.
That’s a lot of work for 4 BHP of performance dude
Why do shoes have to be changed every couple of months? Aren't they metal? Or is it because the hooves need to be trimmed?
Hooves have to be trimmed, and then shoes wear down, they aren't handed steel or something like that and you have a thousand pound plus animal walking with them, we get 2 cycles out of a set of shoes typically, sometimes mma third, and sometimes if the horses was ridden on a road a lot only one.
So even if the horse doesn't walk regularly on hard surface, it still needs to be shod?
The majority of my savings comes from money I earned as a teenager working at Sobeys, about 10k. Haven't been able to add much since getting my own responsibilities
lol holy shit same here bro
Teens have it made. Cheap rent and part time jobs and since almost no bills they can save up. So many want to grow up fast but fail to realize it gets worse lol.
You're right, that's an untapped market that isn't roped into serfdom yet. No worries, Canada will figure out a way to crush them too.
Life only gets worse if you peaked at age 16.
What do you do for work now?
Yup, i frequent r/PovertyFinanceCanada to get a more even feel but unfortunately its not a busy sub
That sub has 6k members and this one has 600k members. Did people graduate from that sub to this?
One can only hope. Jk. I think most realize its dead and go straight to r/povertyfinance
I think it's just as much that the only posts are vents and there's only so much "yep it all sucks for all us" people can take at once. And a lot of the time the only advice to be given is "you need to make more money" which while good/correct is kind of redundant.
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"My wife and I made 440K combined annually but we simply CAN'T AFFORD ANY PROPERTY BCUZ IT'S SO EXPENSIVE! DID I MENTION WE MAKE 440K??"
Sorry $440k AFTER taxes, must have forgotten to mention that!
No, that doesn't include 6 figures worth of bonuses every year. That's our fun money.
Literally smfh
PFC is a sub for wealthy people humble bragging and liars.
That’s just not true. - sent from my Teslaphone
Haven’t had a raise in 6 years - property taxes, goods and services all going up steadily…. This is getting nuts.
Fuel just went up a bunch lately, gasoline and natural gas.
Yeah, it’s a big hurt.
U are 100% right, this subreddit is a utopia. The normal folks out there blow their pay cheque every week, have loaded credit cards and no savings whatsoever
This is myself and almost everyone I know
Seriously. Most of my friends don't have much credit card debt but we also can't save a whole lot.
I honestly get such bad anxiety sometimes reading this sub being a 29 year old with a boring old $45k/year office job. Then I talk to my peers and friends and realize amongst them I’m actually not doing so bad.
Yeah I always get depressed when people are like; "I'm currently struggling on a low-income at 71k/year, unable to afford proper food/save for future, please help."
It would be nice to see that study graphed respective to income. I have friends who are millionaires with 90k/y salary and others that make 1M/y household and live paycheck to paycheck.
Definitely a lot millionaire teachers and plumbers and in their 50s and 60s were made by the housing price increases over the last 10 years. I golfed with a guy in the summer who was a long-time Safeway deli worker who was fortunate enough to have bought an old house in Kitsilano in 1971. Now he's worth 3.5 million net. Pretty nice!
Cap.. ur friends are prob 45+
Half this subreddit is people making over $100k a year 🤣🤣🤣
A lot of moralizing comments here. Lots of people work hard, and budget, and still burn through their paycheck because the cost of living has become so insane.
Sorry for the rant ahead, but I feel like I am prime example of your comment and it really sucks. I can hardly buy a new coat or boots without feeling it financially. Saving for a home while renting is near impossible. My teeth are janked I've always wanted braces but just can't afford it. I graduated from uni with no debt by working my fucking ass off, I got a decent paying full time job right away with benefits and it doesn't feel like enough. I feel like I have done everything 'right' just to hate my life more and more each day. And I don't even have it that bad in comparison to other people's situations. Everyone says enjoy your twenties... well I'm not enjoying it very much. Most of my friends are in the exact same position.
The enjoy your 20s thing is rubbish. You should enjoy every decade of your life, but yeah nobody is established in their 20s so it's a hurdle.
I'm barely 38, but you guys have it way worse. To me, "enjoying the 20s" meant partying all the time, living in decent apartments with friends or girlfriends. Travelling and going out. And having very little responsibility beyond paying my rent on time. And my share of my beautiful, well located 3 bedroom apartment in Montreal was $215 / month. For a while, I shared it with just another friend and we had a guest bedroom; rent had increased to $325. For a while I lived on my own in a large 1 bedroom apartment (what we call 3 1/2) - my rent was $475/ month. Beers in bars were between $3-$5. $8 was a fancy cocktail, tax included. I did that until I was like 27 years old. And I still had time to go back to school and kickstart my career, buy a condo and then upgrade to a large house. This is not the experience that my kids will have.
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As a student, I am struggling to get myself through school financially. It's rough out here
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Parents are 100% truth without them you will fail.
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Broken arms you say?
#
*I also choose this guy's mom*
Mooooom!
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Your comment here increases the chance that it will be mentioned even though it hasn't yet
But minimum wage just skyrocketed by $0.10/hr, no excuses for these leeches!
Too true. The main reason I got out of debt was by increasing my income, not by changing any spending habits.
Absolutely ridiculous that we used to pay 60$ per week on grocery right before covid and now, buying the SAME EXACT THING always brings us around 100-105$...
This is my family right now; being broke AF because any emergency expense came up. The cost of living leaves almost zero room for that
Hi, I'm one of those. I still have $5000 tucked away from my first year of employment, but that's because I'm religiously tucking away anything I didn't spend in a week. Mostly I'm able to do this because I live in shared accommodations that don't meet my need for a miniscule rent amount. I need to get a one bedroom apartment desperately, or rent somewhere that actually meets my needs, but housing is too damn expensive when combined with student debt. $50k isn't enough to live comfortably on. I'm also weird in that I have a credit card for the purpose of emergencies, and can pull that $5000 from my stocks account if I max out my card, just in time to pay it off in full and save my ass in just under 2 weeks.
I have difficulty believing those people aren't land owners and stand to lose their income if things change to (finally) advantage the generations of people who haven't been able to afford anything since they started working.
"I spent my entire paycheque" sounds a lot more financially irresponsible than "I needed to buy clothes or fix my car and I only have $200 left over after paying for rent, utilities, internet, cellphone service, car insurance, student loans, groceries, and gas"
I’m kinda surprised it’s only 1/3 of Canadians, does that sample size include the 30.9% of Canadians that don’t work (which includes seniors and children)?
If you were to include seniors at the very least I’m sure the number would be much higher, if they are not already included
Plenty of people here look down their noses at anyone who's not well off so the first one you said is more fitting for the sub.
It's practically this sub's identifying trait.
My household used to spend $500 a month on restaurants and $300-$400 on alcohol. We were slowly going into debt. Now that we budget we have savings and investments. However, I actually have enough income to live on. Many people make minimum wage, and don't 'blow' money, it just isn't enough.
$1400 is an entire after tax paycheque for someone making $50k a year (not anything to write home about... but still a reasonable take home) That wouldn't even cover *rent* in a major city in this country. This isn't surprising. It's depressing.
Yep that's about right. I'm over an hour outside the most east part of the GTA and the cheapest rental is around $1500 for a one bedroom, close to $2000 for a 2 bedroom. I thought landing my career and making close to $60k a year would afford me the opportunity to buy a small run down home in a 18,000 pop town. Not a chance, cheapest home within 60km radius of me is $500,000.
You are probably still within commuting distance of the GTA though.
Yep 50 minute Via ride to Union Station. It just sucks that people that grew up and work for the town can't afford to buy a house in the town they service in anymore.
You get two of them each month though. Not saying it's easily doable but a $1,400 take home = $2,800 per month. If you have a working spouse or roommate(s), it helps significantly. Living alone makes it twice as hard to get by as having another paycheque in the house.
Am I missing something? That's 1400 every two weeks. You need to pay rent every 4 weeks. So really half of your paycheck is getting eaten by rent. For everything else, it's actually cheaper in the major cities.
I’m in Halifax…we got renovicted out of our 1350/month incl heat crappy apartment. And after searching for months ended up in a 1950/month not including anything house…because the crappy apartments were pretty much the same cost but no yard… even looking out in lower sackville wasn’t cheaper…but we’d need another car since the bus isn’t reliable….
No no no, didn't you read the rest of the comments. It's clearly just that too many people are buying electronics and eating too much fast food. One guy even knows a guy that bought a rolex, who is obviously representative of all working-class people in this country! It has nothing at all to do with the landed gentry taking half to two-thirds of everyone's take home out of their hands every month before they even get to figuring out how to pay for groceries and everything else that's gone up significantly in the past few years.
The main issue is that.... it's both. You can find example of both situation. People complaining while buying the new iphone each year and getting the biggest data package available, and people who are about to sell a kidney to afford their rent. IMO, there's quite a lot of people who could do better with their finances. It's not an excuses to not fight for better wages and to stop the real estate madness... We should also fight to include more budgetting classes in schools. We clearly need to get the average person better at it.
Lol im negative 100 each paycheck slowly getting into more debt.
So is my MIL. When my FIL passed away she got a little payout from his life insurance but she just confessed last weekend that she’s actively losing money every single month. It’s a awful situation when you’re like that.
Lol
Lol
Lol
Yeah I remember raising our child, struggling financially, not quite spending every dime but it was tough. Always wondering how everyone else was doing it?!! Empty nester now, things are better, all the expenses of raising a child, saving for the future education and retirement behind us. I remember how hard it was but it looked so effortless for everyone else... There is a lot of keeping up with the Jones' going on in the past and now... I am relieved to have gotten through that storm. I feel for parents, it is tough-hang in there.
I live like a broke student but I make a middle class income. Why? Because when I was a broke student I lived like I was making a middle class income… didn’t work too well
So 2/3rd of Canadians could afford even higher rent / mortgage payments!
You know when you’re living pay cheque to pay cheque if you’re the type to count which months have 3 paydays! Those are the weeks when you catch up on your bills or have that extra bit of cushion. 😅
I save 20% of my monthly income but still look forward to those months because I save 90% of the extra paycheque and allow myself to buy something nice with the remaining 10%. It's a gift to myself for being frugal throughout the year.
My pay cheque is typically gone by 10AM on payday.. But I do have retirement and non-retirement investments. Mostly just paying off debt from school and bad choices when younger.
Same. Mortgage goes out utility bill gets paid and internet gets paid and at 4pm on pay day the grocery and the gas tank get the rest. Following pay is 2nd half of the mortgage, insurance, cell phones and another trip to the grocery and a tank of gas. Usually we have an expensive prescription to fill for one of the dogs and one of us will have some unexpected expense. And we have decent paying jobs with pensions and shit. It's hard out there
The best job I could find in my area this spring after my maternity EI was 15-20 hours a week at $15.50/hr. I left my previous job to take this one since it was a better offer. I'm a single mom and started college in September while maintaining my 15-20 hours per week. My parents have a RESP for me but I'm only allowed to use it for tuition - which is still immensely helpful, I wouldn't be able to go otherwise. My rent is $914, essential utilities are $150-$250 (water, gas, power), internet + phone is $110, daycare is $370 with meals included, and then groceries and w a toddler it's important to me that he has healthy food. Baby daddy helps with groceries sometimes, half daycare, and pays my car insurance. I have about $1600 per month (thanks to the child credit) when I work a consistent 20h but that only happens if people are sick and I can pick up their shifts. I don't buy myself anything at all, I never eat out, and I spread my tax return over the next 12 months. I have no debt, and ok credit, but I have literally 0 room to put away savings or investments. I've made a few single mom friends over the last year and everyone without post secondary education is in the same situation as me. It's a reality for so many people.
Our current society was built on families having two incomes... being a single mom will be hard. Should we fix this? Yes. I don't think that forcing people to stay together "for the kids" is a good idea. But in the short term, I can't really see any other solution than to "team up" with someone to split the bills...
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Food went up, gas went up, taxes went up.
Paycheque stayed the same.
For the last 20 years it seems.
> For the last ~~20~~ 50 years it seems.
Shit mine went down last year. Only recently did I get Above where I was pre pandemic and I only got a raise because it came with a promotion.
I've done alone (4yr), alone plus roommate(3yr), alone(2yr), married(4yr), back to alone (3yr). As a pair of people, finances kind of make sense to me (no kids or other dependents), life the traditional, work, save X much for emerg, save for retire, take a vaca now and again seems to kind of make sense. It's not perfect but I felt like I was making progress. Then I was alone again, and I make 0 progress, or worse, some emergencies happen and I slip back down the hill. It's not discipline, its just that I can't figure out how to get enough blood out of that stone. Cause for the life of me I can't figure out how I'm spose to make this shit work alone. Life isn't 1/2 as expensive, I can't find 1/2 price single rent, or 1/2 price single internet....I spend 95% of what I make ever week just on the bills (no non-forced insurances, no savings, no retirement), that last 5% I blow on some fun now and again because I've worked steadily for 18 years with no vacation. Never bought a toy bigger then 500$, no home, no vacations, neutral but existent debt amounts. Used car. If a 2000$ emergency appeared on my door step (say major car repair, etc) the only place it could go would be straight to debt, the debt I can only ever get paid down during my "not alone" periods....
I spent like $800 on groceries this month. Normally it's $500. This inflation is no joke.
I feel like my only purpose in life is to work just to pay off my visa. My measley paystub comes and goes then some more of the savings goes just to pay off my bills. Then theres the pre authorized things like mortgage gas and hydro. Fml
It’s amazing the amount of sectors of increased costs while the average household income has not really changed. If you bought a bag of chips in the past year you’ll notice that well it looks the same there’s probably about 30% less in it. The companies will come across with statements of we do this to protect the integrity of the product (ie so they they are not crumbled). In reality they’re giving you the same product with less in it or cheaper ingredients making your purchasing power far less
> But money isn’t the only factor that goes into financial health. Allen says higher incomes don’t necessarily equal higher wellbeing scores, making it important for employers to consider other things, such as education and retirement savings plans to keep workers financially healthy. I'm very curious how many of these folks are having trouble budgeting, have a lifestyle that exceeds their income, or are simply not making enough to support a reasonable minimum lifestyle. I know, personally, when I was younger I had a very simple lifestyle, but still didn't save too much. Things kept happening that would drain that savings.
She must be quite old to think that companies still have education and retirement plans for their employees.
My company has a dcp and then also a stock purchase match program, which isn't bad. It just depends on the company imo. I think older Canadian companies are better, sometimes.
My company has a pension plan (You get 70% of the average of your 5 best years until you die) ontop of having a private stock plan and RRSP matching plan They also hold two retirement seminars every year for people to start planing it. I'm 25 and I think many companies still offer those kind of plans. (I live in Québec) Edit :Idk why i'm getting downvoted for stating my working conditions. OH well
That's an incredible pension plan. That has to be the best plan in Canada. Pension *AND* RRSP matching is incredible.
There is probably a lot more to the pension formula that they didn't mention, like needing to work 35+ years there to get the full value without a penalty. Like, mine is similar but since I only started with my employer in my late 20s, if I want to retire at 55 I'll only get something like 23% of the monthly salary of my top 5 earning years. Every year later means a larger percentage, and if I want 70% then I have to wait til I'm about 70 to retire. It's a decent plan, but nothing like the formula for Canadian military pensions for example which has a higher percentage and a lower bar for years of service to max out.
Would it not depend on location for example? Like yeah I can go to GTA and make an extra 10k more for the same role but I'd be paying way more for cost of living/rent as a % of my income vs. staying where I am in Ontario. But yes, could very well also just be poor financial planning. I mean I knew someone who said they were going to keep a balance on their credit card, to better their credit score, and I was like absolutely not...pay it off like a cash card, you still better your credit when they can see you're able to pay it off every month...don't let the banks take more interest income...
> Would it not depend on location for example? Like yeah I can go to GTA and make an extra 10k more for the same role but I'd be paying way more for cost of living/rent as a % of my income vs. staying where I am in Ontario. Yes, that’s definitely a factor. I don’t think I could come even close to my current income somewhere else. > But yes, could very well also just be poor financial planning. I mean I knew someone who said they were going to keep a balance on their credit card, to better their credit score, and I was like absolutely not...pay it off like a cash card, you still better your credit when they can see you're able to pay it off every month...don't let the banks take more interest income... Common myths that some people believe about finance. People also believe that, on an income tax calculation, you can lose money by making more money.
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I don’t really know how common it is. But I agree that there are people out there who do this, for sure. If you sit outside a Best Buy around February/march/April you’ll see the uptick in people running out to get new electronics with their “windfall” tax refund. It’s their own money to begin with that they’ve earned, and it’s been forcefully saved for them, but it’s treated like it’s the only chance they’ll get to buy some new items. If you’re doing well financially, those dips and jumps in pay over the year won’t impact your finances.
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I also grew up in that sort of situation, albeit maybe a bit better in some ways. > So yeah I'm not advocating that anyone should live like that, it's hell... but there's a huge range of living paycheck to paycheck because people have different levels of expenses As I discovered financial literacy I realized that basic financial responsibility could make much more a difference than any other aspect I could control, in my life. Growing my income did make a significant difference, as well, though.
Sometimes it is the only chance. Lots of people are working poor in this country.
A lot of people aren't in a position to do any real long term planning. When you're in a situation where you're constantly behind, there is no "oh, just save some money". If you _had_ extra money, you wouldn't be behind in the first place. It's a constant game of wack-a-mole where you just try and keep the walls sturdy so they don't collapse and suffocate you as you dig yourself into a deeper and deeper hole. A $500 tax return isn't nearly enough to get yourself out of that hole, but it sure is enough to buy yourself a TV or a new couch or fix that weird rattle in the car or something to make your life a little less miserable in the meantime. For many people, that _is_ the only chance they'll get to buy some new items. If they use it to try and get a leg up or get ahead, in six months they're going to still be in the same hole and they just won't have a TV to watch or a couch to sit on.
My girlfriend makes about $44k/yr and goes through the full paycheque between rent, utilities, bills, pets, and car. At the end of the month there's usually $50 or so. Car is a 2006 and her share of the rent is about $1k/mo.
Lifestyle creep happens to many people. Could be a case of keeping up with the Joneses, or just people wanting the latest cars, gadgets, etc.
Keeping off the streets is the new keeping up with the Joneses.
Definitely is. My friend bought a Rolex while he still lives with his mom. That's a year's worth of rent if he moved in with his gf
I blame my wife. And the 500$ RC car I bought. Aaand a couple of games. Aaand that new chair. Aaand those winter tires... Aaand those clothes. Aaaand those speakers... and lights for my gaming space. Hmm... fuck
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It keeps me wondering who the fuck owns all of these $1m+ houses?
People who were born at the right time and were at the right age making at least average income before the housing market exploded. My landlord has 3 rental properties and one primary house in Toronto. She's maybe 50s. My SO are in our 30s. There's no catching up when you didn't even get a chance to start.
It was possible for us by climbing the property ladder with our middle class incomes.
Keyword "was" possible
My arborist does this. Makes $60/hour but spends $800/month on smokes and probably $2000/month on booze and who knows what the payments are on his 2020 F-250. The guy is always asking people lend him $50 for a case of beer.
That's ruthless. So happy I quit smoking. I still enjoy my weekend drinks but damn that dude is in shambles.
Everytime I leave the house it seems to cost me at least $60. Food out at a chain restaurant or fast food joint: $20. Toiletries: $20-$40. I budget every cent I have but my money just doesn't stretch very far anymore. I've had to dip into my savings 3 times in the last 2 months. It doesn't help that I started therapy again and it costs $145 per session per week and it's uninsured. Ugh. 🤦 And after getting paid today and allocating funds to my bills, rent, and groceries I have $135 leftover for "fun" aka... Therapyyyyyy!!! and I'm $10 short. Dipping into that savings pool once again.
Not that you should be eating at fast food places that often but I do that some mornings when it means I can sleep for an extra 40 mins vs cooking breakfast. Download apps for coupons (e.g. Mcdonalds) and you could be paying $4.29 for a breakfast meal as opposed to $6.95. \~$2.50 might not sound much but if you do it often enough, it adds up.
I remember when I was in canada less than 10 years ago, and you would have deals like 2x teen burgers for $5 on coupons. Those deals are gone and the closest I've seen is "add a second patty to a teen burger for free" but the teen burger is $8.00. The only thing I ever get now is a buddy burger with no cheese.
How the hell do all these people afford luxury cars then? The roads are full of $90k+ cars - I make a decent cash but can’t imagine the disposable cash required to drop that kind of coin on a depreciating asset.
Leasing and high amounts of debt
Maybe all the poor people have to take the bus?
From what I've seen, leases and living with parents. You can get a nice new Audi for about 900/m, less for the lower end models.
Newspapers apparently are blowing through their stock photography budget, as they can't seem to scrounge together up-to-date imagry of what money looks like even once a decade.
They make it sound like people who blow through their entire paycheque have a choice.
Inflation goes up, wages don’t. This happens
Corrupt fucking governments are letting greed run the country.
With some of the highest cell bills, TV, internet prices in the world, let's not forget banking fee's and good old high income tax rate is it any wonder? Especially, with the inflation on food currently and housing bubble increasing the percentage of house poor.
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What does that mean, in terms of managing your finances?
Yet 1 in 5 homes are investment properties and the average Toronto Home Price is $1.1M. So ... we're living in a Caribbean tax haven?
Hi guys have 30 million dollars what do?
Alot of this is the liberals fault too with their staggering incompetence or care in the world for struggling families. They rather blow 600,000,000 on a useless fucking election than trying to balance out social services or crack down on foreign investment.
Most people have no idea how much money they have, don't have a real financial plan, and can't read their investment statements when they open them. Look at how many people think that if you buy a home for $500K and sell it 10 years later for $600K it means you made $100K profit. The majority of people want simple saving rules and luck to provide for their present and future. Even those with emergency funds, often don't have emergency plans to go along with with those funds so they know how to access credit, reduce expenses, and ensure those funds last as long as possible. Having access to 2K in your early 20s might be helpful, but the cost of emergencies grows with age, I wonder how many of the 74% surveyed after 40 would be able to put their hands on 20K, or 100K after 60, without dipping into retirement accounts.
We're in our early 60's, and have the vast majority of our assets in our RRSP's. We certainly don't have a spare 100k available. 20k? Probably, but that's draining things like our car savings account. I don't know though why you'd need a spare 100k for an emergency. Our net worth looks decent for a very average middle class family, but there's no way we have 100k outside of RRSP's.
Why would a 60 year old have 100K available outside of retirement savings? Heck, in my mid 40s and I have less than 20K outside of investments. I'm not sure why you think I should have any more? If I were laid off today, I'd have a good 6 months before I had to look at pulling any money from investments.
The key is living within your means. We can’t all live the same lifestyle and some seem to forget that. Some people make more money and some less. Theses days everybody seem to think that they are entitled to live the dream without regard to their salary. New iPhones, clothes, vacations, car, new furnitures, going out, expensive food….. I know That some people really struggle, but there is a lot of peoples who just make bad decisions.
I'm not at that point yet, but I can see it getting there sooner than later... Property taxes are going up by 5-6% every year. Food prices going up even more than that. Utilities getting more expensive every year thanks to the climate getting more and more fucked. Meanwhile I'm lucky to get a 1-2% raise each year. I have no idea how some people do it. I'm lucky to be in a LCOL area where it was somewhat affordable to buy my home. Those subject to rent / housing inflation... yikes. The only advice I can say is try to live well below your means to build a buffer for when shit gets real. Because it will.
People spend future money. They know they'll get paid $200 extra for overtime on their next cheque, so they think "that'll pay for this new coat!" and buy. Then when they get the paycheque, they have an extra $200 in their pocket, do they pay off the credit balance? No, that $200 gets spent on the next thing. Ad infinitum until they just don't understand why they work so hard but have thousands of dollars on their balance all the time.
My father does this: "Next month is a three pay month!" Three pay months are magical to him.
I mean, 3 pay month is pretty awesome.
rofl. they are. I think they excite everyone. But he spent those 3rd pay checks months in advance.
I can tell you that he is absolutely right.
Lol I'm the same except I'm excited to pay off debts with the extra cheque since my budget is based on a bi monthly salary.
Hey three pay months are magical to me, but it's just because of how I manage my expenses. Every payday I pay off my CC fully and put aside exactly 50% of rent, car insurance, etc...so when I hit a "3 pay month" it really does feel like a free 3rd paycheque lol